OKLAHOMA CITY — Kevin Durant scored 34 points and Russell Westbrook collected his 18th triple-double to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 112-79 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers Monday at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Durant shot 11 of 18 from the field and 6 of 11 from behind the 3-point line. It was the 64th straight game Durant has scored at least 20 points.
Westbrook posted 13 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists. His 18 triple-doubles is the most by any player for one season in the past 30 years. Steven Adams posted 13 points and 15 rebounds as the Thunder improved to 55-26 with one game left Tuesday in San Antonio.
In the final road game of his career, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant posted 13 points on 4 of 12 shooting. With the end to his 20-year NBA career coming Wednesday in L.A., he played only 19 minutes.
Metta World Peace came off the bench to score 12 points. Rookie DeAngelo Russell added 11 points as the Lakers dropped to 16-65.
Oklahoma City will finish the regular season with a 32-9 home record. That is fourth best in the NBA behind San Antonio, Golden State and Cleveland.
Those who thought Bryant was going to take it easy before heading home for the last game of his career got a rude awakening when he took the floor against the Thunder. He played the entire first quarter and scored 13 points on 4 of 10 shooting. That included raining down three 3-pointers as the Lakers trailed by six.
Bryant and Durant challenged each other several times throughout the game. On one series, Durant shot a 3-pointer and missed. Adams got the rebound for the Thunder and Bryant yelled at Adams to give the ball back to Durant.
As impressive and energetic as Bryant was early, Westbrook once again showed that he is not affected by nostalgia. He posted a triple-double in the first half with 11 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds.
The 18 minutes was the least amount of time in his career to get a triple-double. It was also just one minute off the fastest in NBA history. That record belongs to Jim Tucker in 1955. Westbrook now has five triple-doubles under 30 minutes playing time. The rest of the league has one.
After trailing by 10 at half, the Lakers were overwhelmed in the third quarter. The Thunder used a 19-0 run to knock the fight out of the young visitors.
Durant did most of the damage as he poured in 16 points in the quarter to put the contest away.
NOTES: Oklahoma F Kevin Durant said he picked up lessons from Kobe Bryant throughout his nine years in the NBA. That includes a memorable encounter early in his career. “I remember one time after my first year in the league, we had Olympic trials in Vegas and we had a day off. That’s when the young players and the Olympians were all together. They had two buses ready for guys to go work out. Me and Jeff Green were the only two on the first bus. Right when it was about to leave we see Kobe walking on by himself when everybody else took the day off. We worked out on one end and he worked out on the other. He made 50 shots from the 3-point line. That takes a lot to make 50 from seven spots. He was dripping with sweat. The best player in the league and he took a bus to a high school gym to put some work in. He’s old school and that’s exactly what I wanted to be like.” … Lakers coach Byron Scott on how much Bryant will play Wednesday in his final game of his career. “He’ll play more in that game than he has in any all season,” Scott said. … Before Monday’s game, Durant and G Russell Westbrook presented Bryant with a book that had personal messages from each member of the Thunder. … Oklahoma City issued more than 150 media credentials for Monday’s game against Los Angeles. That is the most this season.